A Jazzy Day in History: John Coltrane
Ninety-eight years ago in the autumn of 1926, John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. Though remembered as a saxophonist, he began his musical odyssey focused on the clarinet. With time, his musical tastes changed — as a high schooler, his attention shifted to the alto saxophone.
In 1955, John Coltrane rose to fame as a tenor saxophonist. He joined the now-renowned Miles Davis Quintet and made a name for himself honing his craft alongside the man for whom the quintet was named, celebrated today as one of the most influential minds in music.
In what was an unfortunate case of self-sabotage, Coltrane’s substance abuse motivated Miles Davis’s decision to fire him just two years after they began working together. After this split, Coltrane spent half a year working with fellow jazz musician Thelonious Monk. The two developed a now beloved album — Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane — which was released a few years after the period of their collaboration.
John Coltrane’s technical mastery of music performance allowed him to realize revolutionary techniques in jazz improvisation like the “sheets of sound” approach, which was characterized by a lightning-fast flurry of pitches that created a sort of…